Into the Fire
by OctoberWolf
Summary: During our many heroes' final battles, their moments of truth, everything falls apart. They lose. Horribly. Now, imprisoned and helpless, they must find a way to face the consequences. - AU: What could have happened if Aang and friends had lost.


**Alright, my first ever story on ! Honestly, I own none of the characters in this story, nor do I own the world in which this tale takes place. All credit for that goes to Mike, Bryan, and Nickelodeon, who own Avatar last I checked.

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**Chapter 1: The Fall**

Sokka felt Toph's fingers gripping his own as he looked up at the quickly advancing Firebenders.

"Yeah…I don't think Boomerang's coming back, Toph," he said sadly. "Just – just hang on down there, okay?"

"Aye-aye, captain!" came the grim reply from below. Although Sokka's hands ached and his arm felt as though it was about to come off, he held tight. For Toph's sake, at least.

Closing his eyes, Sokka tried to think his way out of the situation. His mind, however, kept working itself into a corner. Perhaps that was due to the fact that he and Toph were _surrounded by freaking Fire Nation soldiers and dangling off the tip of an airship that was hovering over a burning forest!_ Yeah, that was probably it. Things like these put a guy under a lot of pressure.

Suddenly, things got worse: a scream echoed out over the airship.

"Sokka!" the voice yelled; it sounded as though it was in pain. The shout shattered Sokka's concentration absolutely, and he opened his eyes. He almost wished they were still closed, though, for there in front of him was Suki, captured and bound by a Fire Nation soldier. Oh yes – and she was on fire.

Trying to keep himself calm, Sokka shouted over the wind, "Suki! Hold on!"

Toph tried to grip tighter, and Sokka stuck his head down over the edge. His vision was blurred with tears as he told Toph, "It's Suki. They're – they're burning her alive."

Her eyes, green and sightless, met his blue ones. In that moment, something passed between the two of them, and Sokka knew what the Earthbender was going to do.

"Toph, you can't – I won't let you!" he yelled, but it was too late.

"Bye Sokka. Tell Aang…tell him I'm sorry." And then she let go.

Sokka was in shock, to say the least. The woman he loved was being burned before his eyes, and his best friend had just fallen to her death so that he might be spared. For an instant, he couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't speak. He could only exist, teetering on the edge of death itself.

And then, he realized that he had to live. For Suki. For Toph. For everyone and everything that was ever going to be.

Leaping up, Sokka attacked with his bare hands. He hit and punched the soldiers, some of whom sustained minor bruises. Mostly, however, they hurled fire at the water tribe boy, burning him and singeing his clothes. He couldn't even reach Suki, who was undoubtedly dead anyway.

In the end, handcuffs were slapped on him and angry Firebenders shoved him into the ship. Sokka, though, was numb – his mind was elsewhere. It was engulfed in flames, burning with Suki, and falling with Toph. But, unlike his Earthbender friend, it didn't hit the ground. Even as he was being brought back to the Fire Nation and chained, thrown in jail with the worst of criminals, his mind was falling through empty space.

It didn't stop. Not for a very long time indeed.

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Zuko convulsed on the ground, brutally injured by the lightning that had been meant for Katara. Although he tried to get up, he couldn't – all he could do was jerk around like some sad little fish.

His scar burned like fire, like it had just been given to him, and his father's laughter rang in his ears. Was this what Zuko's destiny had held all along: pain and a slow death by his sister's hands? If so, his entire journey, his entire _life_, was a joke. Honor didn't matter at all, not when you were dying. If only he could have realized that sooner…

He blacked in and out of consciousness, trying to focus on Katara as she battled Azula. All he could see were flashes of her, attacking and defending. Was Azula winning? Or was that water, not lightning, that surrounded them both?

Zuko was unable to tell, unable to think. He knew that this, at least, wouldn't be forever – if nothing else, he would die soon. That notion provided some small comfort.

After what seemed like years but what may have been only several minutes, Zuko's flashes of sight stopped. Now it was just blackness that he saw, devouring him, engulfing him. It seemed so soft, the darkness…so easy to give in to.

And so he did.

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_No! NonononoZuko! _was Katara's first thought as she saw Zuko blasted by Azula's lighting. Somehow, her thoughts must have bubbled over and escaped out her mouth, because she heard the word in the air before her. "Zuko!"

He was dead. _He must be,_ Katara reasoned. _He can't have survived that._

It was odd; her mind was working so quickly, and yet time seemed to have slowed. She felt so calm, and oddly detached – and then it hit her.

_Oh shit. Zuko's dead._

_And his sister killed him._

_And she's about to kill me, too._

Suddenly, time wasn't moving slowly anymore. Katara was a sitting target, and Azula was not one to miss. Primal instinct flooded Katara like the water she bent, and all other thoughts were scrubbed out by one deceptively simple question: _fight, or flight?_

Being Katara, she chose a bit of both.

As she ran for cover, Azula screamed something insane and shot a ball of blue fire hurling past her head. The shot was close. Too close.

For an instant, Katara thought she was done for before the battle even began. The notion of running back to Zuko so she could die beside a friend was tempting, but something spurred her to keep moving. If only she could reach that pillar, and that water trough…

Again, a wall of heat raced toward her. Reaching for the water that was so close and so far at the same time, Katara just managed to stop herself from being charred. As it was, her clothes were beginning to catch light, and Azula wasn't relenting.

_She won't. Not until one of us is dead._

Building herself a wave of water, Katara decided to go for the element of surprise. She propelled herself toward Azula, launching a veritable cannon of water at the Fire Princesses' head. The attack was dodged easily, and Katara turned herself away from the insane bender before a counter-attack could be formed. They fell into a pattern of dodging and attacking, each trying to land the final blow. Katara greatly resembled a snowboarder in her intricate bobbing and weaving.

Not that she knew what a snowboarder was, of course.

Finally, exhausted, Katara found herself sheltering behind the very pillar she had thought to hide behind before. Azula, curiously, did not seem to have followed her.

"Where are you?" Katara panted, readying her water whip.

"Right here," laughed a voice somewhat to her left.

Without thinking, Katara lashed out with the whip, catching Azula's right arm. Using the force of her attack, Katara pulled her unbalanced opponent around to face her, and stared the beaten Fire Princess straight in her cold, crazed eyes.

"I'm not going to kill you, Azula," Katara said decisively.

"Oh really?" her captive asked mockingly. "I suppose it's too bad that I can't say the same. Say hello to Zu-Zu for me!"

With that, Azula unleashed her pent-up lightning, conducting it through the water that connected the two benders.

The last thing Katara saw as her head hit the cobbled ground was Zuko, struggling to lift himself off the ground.

_Well, at least he's not dead yet,_ she thought. And then she thought nothing at all.

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**Reviews, negative or positive, are greatly appreciated. **

**By which I mean, REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW! ;)  
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